[Jerry]

Peter Wieck wrote 10/8/2006:
Jerry wrote:


Under a single amp, I don't think "soldering to the top of the pot"
would
actually work, Peter. I mean that balance would be way off ... far too
bright!

YIKES!.... Yikes....

Before I completely misunderstand what you did, how did you remove the
3-wire pot from the circuit? OK. Pot is gone, what got connected where?
Did you just lump the three wires together?

I am (admittedly) boggling at the "far too bright" comment as well,
especially as connected to the comment "move the function back to the
volume controls". What does the crossover look like when you are done
with your mods? Did you replace the various caps?

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA

Ok, my "mod" (and I don't really think of it as a mod as there was
essentially zero change in sound) was to remove the pots from the circuit.
The pots are still in place, just doing nothing and dissipating zero energy.

To implement this, all I did was cut the lead on the pots going to the
drivers and the leads at the top of the pot. Twisted these together and
soldered. Put on a wire connector and sandwiched between mounds of
fiberglass (or whatever that itchy stuff is).

The yellow wires are still connected to the pots and from the pots on to the
drivers. Everything else is exactly as it was. All the reactive components
are intact.

Peter, I did not change the caps. They looked good so I measured and they
were fine. I expected to see some pretty excessive leakage, but that was
fine as well.

Next, I ran some tests to see if the current going to the drivers was
consistent with the xovers and again it's clear the xovers are performing
their job well. For these tests, I sent full signals to each half. And
while voltage was applied to the speakers, the xovers effectively "blocked"
frequencies not intended for their respective drivers.

So, xovers are doing their job, drivers are doing their job and all I have
to do is send the appropriate energy to each half of the speaker. Peter,
this adjustment is so coarse and impacts so many frequencies that it's
pretty hard to be much off. In short, if the balance isn't correct, human
voice sounds awful and so do instruments.

Under bi-amping the volume controls perform essentially the same function
that was performed by the pots ... to balance energy between the drivers.

Regards,
Jerry